Data Protection Policy and Privacy Policy Statement

Plant Your Future (PYF) are committed to ensuring that any personal data we collect is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner. This policy explains how we collect, manage and protect your data. It also explains how you can gain access to your information, ensure that it is accurate and up to date, and control how we use it.

This statements outlines:

  1. Why we collect Personal Information
  2. What Personal Information we collect
  3. How we use your Personal Information
  4. Sharing your Personal Information
  5. How we keep your Personal Information safe
  6. Ensuring you’re in control of your Personal Information

1. Why we collect Personal Information

PYF collects, processes and stores personal information in order to:

  • Fulfil our charitable objectives and meet our responsibilities to our supporters;
  • Carry out our day-to-day operations;
  • Maintain our financial and administrative records;
  • Comply with our statutory obligations.

2. What Personal Information we collect

PYF collects personal information that you supply voluntarily through our digital channels, which include our website, social media networks, third party mailing provider Mailchimp and donation websites such as TheBigGive.

In some circumstances, we collect information that is already in the public domain (for example, email addresses of schools and teachers to enquire about potential fundraising). On rare occasions, we may use postal, telephone or in-person contact.

We only collect the information we need for specific reasons, as outlined above, and this information can include a record of financial transactions, communications history, fundraising activities you have undertaken on behalf of PYF.

We do not and never will purchase or sell lists for marketing purposes.

When you visit our website, anonymous information relating to website activity is collected: for example, the number of site visitors in a specified period may be collected for statistical purposes via Google Analytics but this information is not used to identify an individual user. Please refer to Google’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

We may place a cookie on your computer when you visit the PYF website. This is a file created by the website to store information on your computer, such as information that identifies you or the preferences you have specified. Cookies can help to make for a smoother browsing experience on websites which you visit frequently. If you do not wish your computer to accept cookies you may disable them by clicking on the icon on the bottom right of your screen, but if you do so some features of the website may not work as expected.

We retain all information you submit while on the PYF website, for example when you sign up to our newsletter or make an online donation. If you have donated via a third party donation website (such as TheBigGive) please refer to their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy; we will only receive information passed to us according to the preferences that you have specified on that particular donation website.

If you subscribe to our email newsletter, your clicks on links in the newsletter are monitored by us. These clicks are associated with the email address you used to subscribe, but the information is only available to us and we use it solely to measure how popular the newsletter, its links and articles are.

We do not normally collect special category information (for example, information relating to health, political, philosophical or religious beliefs, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation), unless this is necessary for very specific purposes (for example, to fulfil our responsibilities and legal obligations as an employer). We take particular care of any special category information that we have, and it is restricted to those who need access to it to carry out their jobs. This information is never used for marketing purposes.

We welcome communications with and donations from all persons of all ages, but we will take particular care of the Personal Information of children and young people. Where a young person under the age of 16 discloses their age to us, this will be noted in their record on the PYF database to ensure that appropriate safeguards are observed. We may also require evidence of parental or legal guardian consent before processing their data. We will require parental or legal guardian consent before knowingly accepting direct debit instructions from a young person under the age of 16. We will only take and use photographs of the children with the express written authorisation of the parent or legal guardian, obtained via the school or association. Any related publicity material will be submitted in advance to the school or association for comment/correction.

3. How we use your Personal Information

We will only use your personal information on specific lawful grounds laid out in law. These include:

  • when it is necessary to perform a contract (for example, if you make a donation or apply for a job vacancy);
  • When we have a legal obligation (for example, observing our responsibilities as an employer, or retaining financial records);
  • when we have your consent (for example, to send you direct marketing communications by email, such as our online newsletter);
  • when we have a legitimate purpose to do so which does not override your rights (for example, informing you of any changes to our policies or any issues relating to processing a donation).

We do not currently communicate via post, telephone or SMS for marketing purposes. Supporters who supply us with their telephone numbers will only receive telephone contact from us should there be any queries relating to their donation. We do not carry out cold calling.

Personal Information that we collect is never sold, traded or rented to other organisations or disclosed to persons outside PYF other than to those who carry out work on our behalf (such as processing online donations) or unless we are legally obliged to do so.


When you make a donation through our website you will receive an automatic confirmation of your payment. You will also have an opportunity to let us know whether and how you would like us to contact you in the future.

Whether you make a donation online, by post, by telephone or in person you will receive an acknowledgment (which can be sent by post or email), and you can opt to receive our online newsletter. If you opt-in for this communication, it will be used to keep you up-to-date with our work and lets you know how your money has been used. From time-to-time you may also receive urgent appeals or mailings with information on new projects.


We hope that you will wish to be kept up-dated in this way, but if you do not want to receive communications from us in the future, please let us know by contacting us: info@plantyourfuture.org.uk or unsubscribing from the newsletter which is always an option at the footer of the email.

4. Sharing your Personal Information

We only disclose your Personal Information to third parties or individuals if we are legally obliged to do so or:

  • when we use other companies, consultants or contractors to provide services on our behalf (for example, we use Beacon CMR, Go Cardless and Enthuse to store data and process online donations);
  • for obtaining references for employment or undertaking due diligence prior to appointing consultants or contractors.

If we need to share information, we ensure that the third party receiving the information has appropriate security measures in place to protect your information.

5. How we keep your Personal Information safe

We employ appropriate technical, physical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, based on the advice set-out by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

When we transfer and receive financial information electronically, we use a secure server. All personal data, whether in electronic or paper form, is kept securely and access is restricted to those requiring it for their work. Electronic records are protected by passwords and, if required, will be encrypted. We have appropriate security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you.

Our website may from time to time contain links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites will have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies, or for any personal information that you submit to them.

We do not hold your credit or debit card data on our electronic systems; payments are processed on our behalf by Enthuse, GoCardless and Beacon CMR, who maintain a high level of security. If you provide your credit or debit card details by phone or in writing, the information is destroyed securely once the transaction is completed.

6. Ensuring you’re in control of your Personal Information

If at any time you wish to change the way we contact you, or decide that you do not want any further contact from us, please let us know by: info@plantyourfuture.org.uk or +44 7828 608711

All email updates will provide you with the opportunity to update your preferences, or to unsubscribe from all future emails.

Under the data protection legislation you have certain rights to access your personal data, to correct inaccurate information and to object to certain types of processing. If you would like further information or wish to exercise your rights to access your personal data, please email: info@plantyourfuture.org.uk. Before access is granted we will require proof of identity, which may include, for example, copies of passport, driving licence, or recent utility bills.

Updates and changes to this policy

We will not use your personal information for purposes that we have not previously advised you of. If our information practices change in the future, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you. We will do our best to obtain your consent should we wish to use personal information for new, unanticipated purposes, and we will always respect your decision if you wish to opt out of receiving communications from us. This policy was last updated on 23/06/2020.